


Birthday Memories

by EHyde



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Gen, zeno bday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 10:32:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7931281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHyde/pseuds/EHyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yona wants to celebrate Zeno's birthday, but doesn't know when it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday Memories

Yona gazed upwards, at patches of bright sky flickering through the shady forest canopy, and took a deep breath. She’d asked Zeno to accompany her while she hunted today because she wanted a chance to talk to him in private, but now, she didn’t want to risk spoiling such a beautiful day with a conversation that could easily go wrong. Looking around, she could still see Kija, his white robes easily visible through the trees as he gathered firewood, but the white dragon was surely too far away to hear them. Yona had no excuse to put this off any longer.

“Hey, Zeno,” she began. “Can you tell me when your birthday is? That is, do you—?”

“Ah, Zeno doesn’t really remember,” Zeno replied, confirming what she had worried might be the case. Yona’s disappointment must have shown on her face, because he followed with a cheerful “it’s okay! Zeno doesn’t worry about that sort of thing!” Yona knew the reason for that, knew that in so many years alone, there must have been no point—and if he didn’t _want_ to celebrate his birthday, well, she could sympathize. But Zeno was with friends now, and Yona had hoped— “Why does the miss want to know?”

“Well, you know, Hak’s birthday was last week,” Yona said, and Zeno nodded. “But I had lost track of the date, and I almost didn’t remember in time.” She hadn’t even been able to find a good gift for him, and the last-minute party had only been possible at all thanks to Yun. Still, at least she hadn’t forgotten completely. Hak would have teased her relentlessly—or worse, thought she really didn’t care. And correcting _that_ —if she’d actually forgotten—would have been a disaster. “But that made me realize I didn’t know when anyone else’s birthday was, and I don’t want anyone to be left out. I’ve been asking everyone, so that I can do something for all of you. Did you know that Kija’s birthday is the day before mine?” That would be nice. Next year, she’d be able to celebrate for a friend, instead of dwelling on her own memories. “Shin-ah didn’t know the date of his, just that it was the middle of winter, and the moon was full. But Yun says he can figure out the date from that, isn’t that amazing?”

“The lad’s very clever!”

“So … so you‘re the only one without—”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Besides, even if Zeno remembered the date, Kouka’s calendar isn’t the same anymore.”

“It’s not?” Yona hadn’t really put a lot of thought into how much the world must have changed around Zeno, in all the long years he’d been alive. But when she thought about how much things could change in the space of mere months—of what Tae-jun had done for the Fire Tribe, for example— “Was the world a very different place back then?”

Zeno smiled. “Not so different as you might think. Some things were different, but people are pretty much the same.”

“People did still celebrate birthdays, right?” Yona asked the question the moment it entered her mind, then felt her face flush. What a silly thing to ask! But Zeno appeared to be considering the question seriously.

“Well, Zeno thinks not so many people knew their birthdays. But yes, miss! People celebrated!” A sudden smile crossed his face, somehow different than his usual cheerful expression.

“What?”

“Hm?”

“Just now, you looked like you thought of something.” Yona didn’t want to pry, but–well, she was curious. “Like you remembered something.”

“Oh, Zeno just thought about how one year, Hakuryuu gave Zeno a cow!” Yona instinctively glanced over at Kija, even though that didn’t make any sense, before she realized he wasn’t the Hakuryuu that Zeno meant. For a moment she regretted bringing up something that would bring forth memories of the past, but—Zeno had smiled.

“I’m glad you have happy birthday memories,” Yona said. “Even without the date.” But without a date, there couldn’t ever be any more birthday memories, not even now that Zeno was surrounded by friends again.

“A … cow?” Kija approached, the name Hakuryuu drawing his attention. “After everything you’ve said, I still don’t understand the first Lord Hakuryuu. Why a cow?”

“He said it would help Zeno grow up strong!”

“Aha! Then it worked!” Kija joked, interrupting Zeno’s self-deprecating laugh. Yona smiled. Ever since learning Zeno’s true age she had been nervous about asking him about that time, self-conscious about asking him about Hiryuu. But it seemed that Kija had talked with Zeno about the first Hakuryuu before, and that Zeno was happy to remember him in conversation.

“Hey, Zeno,” she began. “You … you were able to have a lot of birthdays, right? With your brothers?” Zeno closed his eyes for a moment, and Yona wondered if she had gone too far. No matter how many years they’d had together, it couldn’t have been enough. “You don’t have to answer,” she hastily added.

“No, miss, it’s fine,” said Zeno, opening his eyes and smiling. “Yes, Zeno did—even though it seemed silly to celebrate Zeno’s thirty-fifth birthday!”

Kija blinked. “Thirty—Zeno, I can believe you’re ancient, but I somehow cannot imagine you as ever being in your thirties.”

Zeno laughed. “Zeno takes that as a compliment! Guen insisted on celebrating, though, every year! He did that for all of us. Shuten didn’t know his birthday, and Guen wouldn’t leave him alone until he picked a date. Shuten chose a day in the dead of winter, when the rest of us would be miserable, just to spite him.” He paused. “November 19.” Another pause. Kija opened his mouth, on the verge of speaking, but said nothing. “Funny that Zeno remembers that, but not his own,” Zeno said with a too-bright smile.

Yona reached forward to hug Zeno. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wanted you to have happy memories of us, too, but they don’t have to be birthday memories.”

Zeno pulled away, letting a hand linger on Yona’s shoulder. “Zeno can already tell, there will be plenty of new happy memories. But you can pick a day for birthdays if you want! It was summertime, Zeno remembers that much.” Yona nodded, though she already knew she wouldn’t. Zeno was right, he didn’t need birthdays, and new happy memories couldn't—and shouldn’t—replace what had come before.

But Kija, who had been looking like he wanted to say something for a while now, spoke up. “August 30,” he said.

Zeno froze. “That's—that sounds—that is, Zeno doesn’t remember, but that's—” He looked up at Kija, a ray of sunlight glimmering in his hair. “Hakuryuu, how did you know?”

“In my village,” said Kija, “we held a festival for my birthday, every year. But we also honored the other three dragon warriors. When I was small, I asked if their holidays were birthdays, too, and Granny told me not to be silly. But—the festival of the green dragon is held on November 19. And Ouryuu’s is August 30.”

“Then, Kija,” Yona began, amazed, “for two thousand years, your village remembered—”

“Guen.” Zeno’s voice shook, and for a moment lingered on just that name. “Guen, even after we parted, you still, every year…”

Kija lowered his head. “We didn’t remember why, and we didn’t even remember their—your—names…”

“But, Hakuryuu, you remembered,” said Zeno. Yona couldn’t tell if he spoke to Kija or to the first white dragon, or perhaps to their whole millennia-spanning legacy, but it was Kija he reached out to. “Hakuryuu, you really are amazing!”

Yona reached up to brush away a stray tear that had found its way into her eye. “August 30 is coming up soon,” she said as she joined the others in a group hug. “We’ll have a birthday party for you after all, Zeno.”


End file.
